I'm not going to buy a TV just to "try" to figure out how to get audio out of it. I mean, I'm sure there must be a way to do this. I've seen a few options in this thread. If I were to buy a TV, I would want to avoid making it more difficult than I have to. To that end, I'd want to figure out specifically how to get audio to the speakers. In my case, they're active bookshelf speakers without HDMI input.
If the only possible way of doing this is with a bulky receiver, I'd feel justified in complaining about modern AV stuff. Not because of the cost, but because of the size.
Nah man I'm with you. I've gone chest-deep into this pool and still get issues 5-10% of the time with pretty simple use cases. And I've got a top-of-the-line TV and a pretty good receiver. It's maddening that such conceptually simple use cases don't "just work" even when you DO sink hundreds or thousands of dollars on the stuff you're supposed to.
If the only possible way of doing this is with a bulky receiver, I'd feel justified in complaining about modern AV stuff. Not because of the cost, but because of the size.
Anyway, thanks for your input.